Tony Bennett - Playin' With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 57:05

Size: 130.7 MB

Styles: Vocal

Year: 2001

Art: Front

[3:28] 1. Alright, Okay, You Win (With Diana Krall)

[3:35] 2. Everyday (I Have The Blues) (With Stevie Wonder)

[2:41] 3. Don't Cry Baby

[4:53] 4. Good Morning Heartache (With Sheryl Crow)

[3:14] 5. Let The Good Times Roll (With B.B. King)

[4:12] 6. Evenin' (With Ray Charles)

[3:52] 7. I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues (With Bonnie Raitt)

[3:49] 8. Keep The Faith, Baby (With K.D. Lang)

[3:23] 9. Old Count Basie Is Gone (Old Piney Brown Is Gone)

[3:19] 10. Blue And Sentimental (With Kay Starr)

[4:29] 11. New York State Of Mind (With Billy Joel)

[3:15] 12. Undecided Blues

[3:32] 13. Blues In The Night

[4:32] 14. Stormy Weather (With Natalie Cole)

[4:45] 15. Playin' With My Friends (With Others)

Tony Bennett's latter-day albums tend to have themes, and this one has two, as indicated by its double-barreled title: It is both a duets album and a blues album. The duet partners include ten singers who range from his recent touring partners Diana Krall and k.d. lang to fellow veterans Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Kay Starr, and younger, but still mature pop stars Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, and Billy Joel. All sound happy to be sharing a mic with Bennett. Not surprisingly, the singer's conception of the blues does not extend to the Mississippi Delta or the South Side of Chicago; rather, he is interested in the blues as filtered through the sound of the Swing Era, particularly from around Kansas City, and as interpreted by Tin Pan Alley and show tunes. For the former, his true mentor is Count Basie, whose overt influence is heard on six of the 15 tracks. Bennett makes no attempt to hide this, leading off the album with two songs, "Alright, Okay, You Win" (a duet with Krall) and "Everyday (I Have the Blues)" (a duet with Wonder), closely associated with Basie singer Joe Williams. The Broadway and Hollywood blues style is introduced in three selections written by Harold Arlen. On about half the tracks, the Ralph Sharon Quartet is augmented by Harry Allen's saxophone and Mike Melvoin's Hammond organ, but this remains a small, intimate affair that emphasizes the singers. There are missteps -- Sheryl Crow's Billie Holiday impersonation on "Good Morning, Heartache" is unfortunate, and Natalie Cole, as usual, sounds out of her depth on "Stormy Weather." But the trade-offs Bennett enjoys with King and Charles are priceless, and the Joel duet is surprisingly effective. On the whole, this is yet another entry in Bennett's lengthening series of autumnal recorded triumphs. ~William Ruhlmann

Playin' with My Friends"

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Maceo Parker - Dial Maceo

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2000
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:48
Size: 126,7 MB
Art: Front

(0:23)  1. Dial MACEO
(5:10)  2. Rabbits In The Pea Patch
(3:23)  3. My Baby Loves You
(4:02)  4. I've Got Work To Do
(5:38)  5. The Greatest Romance Ever Sold
(4:59)  6. Black Widow
(2:55)  7. Coin Toss
(4:30)  8. Simply Tooley
(4:40)  9. Latin Like
(5:30) 10. The Closer I Get To You
(4:05) 11. My Love
(9:28) 12. Home Boy

Undoubtedly one of the best known sax players in the history of funk, predominantly through his work with James Brown ("Play, Maceo!"), Maceo Parker has had a spotty recorded solo career. His eighth album as a band leader finds the horn honker expanding his palette by aiming his instrument at smooth jazz and rap, while inviting fans Ani DiFranco, James Taylor (?!), and Prince to add superstar spice to his soul stew. Although it's refreshing that these folks wanted to lend a hand, none of their contributions help define the album, and, in Prince's case, even waters it down. Certainly Parker doesn't need any assistance as smoking versions of the Isley Brothers' "Work to Do," the album's opening stuttering funk salvo of the self-composed "Rabbits in the Pea Patch," and "Coin Toss" (DiFranco's track) makes clear. The talented Parker, who is only slightly less adept at the flute and piano, rips into scorching solos equally as energetic as anything he did with Brown or George Clinton. Unfortunately, a shift to easy-listening fusion with treackly covers of Robert Flack's "The Closer I Get to You" and especially Paul McCartney's icky "My Love" move him into slick, supper club territory as the disc closes. His horn still sparkles, but without the deep R&B party sounds to work with, the latter part of the album sinks into formula. On the other end of the spectrum is "Black Widow," featuring Parker's son Corey rapping over a slow, sparse backing as dad plays flute in an attempt to push his musical envelope, which never quite gels. Nor does an almost unrecognizable James Taylor singing vocal harmony on "My Baby Loves You," a joyously upbeat track. By trying to touch too many bases, Maceo Parker only dilutes his most stunning attribute the tough, groove machine fury of his sax. That makes this another good, but not great, release from a legendary artist whose flame remains white hot, but whose albums never quite catch fire.~ Hal Horowitz https://www.allmusic.com/album/dial-maceo-mw0000058958

Personnel: Maceo Parker (vocals, alto saxophone, flute, piano); Prince (vocals, various instruments); Ani DiFranco (vocals, guitar); James Taylor, Corey Parker, "Sweet" Charles Sherrell (vocals); Vincent Henry (tenor saxophone); Ron Tooley (trumpet, flugelhorn); Bennie Cowan (trumpet); Greg Boyer (trombone); Sheryl Crow (harmonica, background vocals); Will Boulware (Hammond organ, synthesizer); Bruno Speight (guitar); Rodney "Skeet" Curtis (bass); Jamal Thomas, Michael Bland (drums); Kevin Hupp (percussion); Diann Sorrell, Audrey Martells, Corey Parker, Charles Sherell (background vocals).

Dial Maceo

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Rita Wilson - AM/FM

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:03
Size: 123.8 MB
Styles: Easy Listening, Country-pop
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[3:53] 1. All I Have To Do Is Dream
[3:25] 2. Never My Love
[3:12] 3. Come See About Me
[3:54] 4. Angel Of The Morning
[3:28] 5. Walking In The Rain
[3:46] 6. Wichita Lineman
[3:56] 7. Cherish
[2:40] 8. You Were On My Mind
[3:31] 9. Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues
[4:14] 10. Love Has No Pride
[4:14] 11. Please Come To Boston
[5:34] 12. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
[4:03] 13. Faithless Love
[4:07] 14. River

"AM/FM" features Wilson's takes on a variety of songs by the Everly Brothers ("All I Have to Do is Dream"), the Association ("Cherish"), Glen Campbell ("Wichita Lineman"), Joni Mitchell ("The River"), the Supremes ("Come See About Me" and more. Conceptually, she says the 11-song set hearkens back to her youth. "The songs I selected reminded me of what I heard on the radio, AM or FM," Wilson explains. "The AM stuff are things I remember my parents playing, either in the car or on the HiFi at home. Then FM radio came into existence...and I had my own car and full control of the dial. The AM section represents all this hope, giddiness, romance, joy, then the singer-songwriters came around for the FM side and were like, 'Yeah, that didn't quite work out, and let me tell you this little story about it...' "

Patti Scialfa and Sheryl Crow guest on a pair of songs each on "AM/FM," along with Jackson Browne ("Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues"), Chris Cornell ("All I Have to Do is Dream") and Vince Gill ("Faithless Love"). But the real coupe, she says, was having Jimmy Webb play piano on his "Wichita Lineman." "My producer (Fred Mollin) had coincidentally produced some of Jimmy's albums, and after we knew I wanted to cut 'Wichita Lineman' he said, 'Maybe I should get Jimmy to come in and play piano on this,' " Wilson recalls. "I said, 'Are you joking?' 'No, I'll ask him,' and Jimmy said sure. He happened to be in L.A., so we got together and it was the first song we cut. He was so gracious and amazing, I still can't believe it."

AM/FM

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Sheryl Crow - Home For Christmas

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 45:23
Size: 103.9 MB
Styles: Holiday
Year: 2009
Art: Front

[3:10] 1. Go Tell It On The Mountain
[3:20] 2. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasing On An Open Fire)
[3:28] 3. White Christmas
[3:39] 4. I'll Be Home For Christmas
[3:14] 5. Merry Christmas Baby
[4:31] 6. The Bells Of St. Mary's
[3:21] 7. Blue Christmas
[3:37] 8. O Holy Night
[3:56] 9. There Is A Star That Shines Tonight
[3:38] 10. Hello My Triend, Hello
[5:11] 11. All Through The Night
[4:11] 12. Long Road Home

Originally released as a Hallmark exclusive for the holiday season of 2008, Home for Christmas was expanded by a single cut for its exclusive 2010 for Target: “Long Road Home,” taken from Sheryl Crow’s fine 2010 tribute to Southern soul, 100 Miles from Memphis. This may be a secular tune, but it fits snugly next to the rest of Home for Christmas, as that holiday record was designed as a slow, soulful stroll through seasonal classics, Crow turning in excellent versions of tunes as diverse as “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Crow doesn’t necessarily reinvent these songs -- “Merry Christmas Baby” is taken at a slightly faster gait than usual, “White Christmas” grooves like classic Stax -- but she does inhabit them and her band is tight and dexterous, giving this Christmas album some unexpected and welcome soul. It’s a good enough holiday album that it shouldn’t be thought of as a thrown-off exclusive: it’s one of the better pop Christmas records of the last half of the 2000s. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Home For Christmas

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Sheryl Crow - Feels Like Home

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 43:43
Size: 100.1 MB
Styles: Contemporary country
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:12] 1. Shotgun
[4:09] 2. Easy
[3:56] 3. Give It To Me
[3:50] 4. We Oughta Be Drinkin'
[3:23] 5. Callin' Me When I'm Lonely
[3:29] 6. Waterproof Mascara
[3:15] 7. Crazy Ain't Original
[3:32] 8. Nobody's Business
[4:03] 9. Homesick
[3:22] 10. Homecoming Queen
[3:17] 11. Best Of Times
[4:08] 12. Stay At Home Mother

Unlike, say, Bon Jovi, it is no great leap for Sheryl Crow to plunge into contemporary country on Feels Like Home. Tuesday Night Music Club, her 1993 debut, could've been called country-rock if it had been released in another era and she's never shied away from roots music, either giving it a crisp, classy spin or taking a full stylistic detour, as she did on 2010's 100 Miles from Memphis. In some ways, that soul excursion felt like a greater departure for Crow than this 2013 album, as beneath the down-home accouterments of aggressive Telecasters, self-consciously country lyrics, the affected down-home twang in her voice, and the occasional fiddle, Feels Like Home feels like standard-issue Crow, the kind of record that could've been delivered after The Globe Sessions. Indeed, the opener "Shotgun" feels like an inversion of C'Mon C'mon's opener "Steve McQueen," "We Oughta Be Drinkin'" is a slower kissing cousin of "All I Wanna Do," "Easy" rolls along lazily but co-opts some of the clever cultural nods of Sheryl Crow, while "Nobody's Business" and "Best of Times" are cheerful roots-pop tunes that'd feel welcome on any of her albums. Crow stumbles when she tries to get a little too country, either by ratcheting up Music City melodrama or writing relatable blue-collar vignettes so brimming with clichés they verge on the condescending. Of course, part of the appeal of Feels Like Home is its show biz panache, how Crow cheerfully adapts to her surroundings and gives the people what she believes they want. That her instincts are often right speaks to her skills. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Recording information: Big Green Barn Studio; Blackbird Studios; Oceanway Studios.

Feels Like Home

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